Best way to manage excess fatigue during plan?

Training
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I’m doing Plan Builder LV but adding ~2h30m of Z2 work each week to target at least 6 hours per week.

I’ve been aware that I’ve been bouncing off the ceiling a bit for a few weeks, even previous to my last FTP increase from AI FTP (217 to 222, with a 0.6kg weight gain puts me at 3.89 w/kg). This seems to have come from the increase in volume I started in the new year and the extra calories I take in while training, if anything I probably overfeed on the bike (~70-90g of carbs per 1h to 1h30m workout at 57.1kg).

I’ve noted starting this winter my cadence have been declining in workouts, last night doing Moose’s Tooth -1, I got ground to a full on cadence of 0 and reset of ERG mode in the last part of the 2nd last interval, managed the last interval better by spinning up a bit faster for the start of the interval. I recognize that I should have just decreased the intensity rather than rolling down to 30s and then a full stop like a ramp test… I have been slowing down the progression that has been prescribed by my plan, for example chose Glassy -4 (3.4) instead of Mount Albert +1 (3.8) earlier in the week.

Did a search and did find the workout bailouts section mentioned in a thread, I could have just reduced the intensity but wanted to either fail or complete the workout rather than turning it down, which also leads to a fail.

What I would rather do is just manage my plan better to allow for the extra Z2 work I’m putting in each week. If I wasn’t doing the extra Z2 perhaps I could keep pace with the prescribed progression but I’m also in a stage of extreme life stress, working 6-7 days per week for a 5 week stretch.

Should I just pick easier alternatives for a while to keep my PLs static instead of doing progressively harder workouts? For example next week they want 3.9 and 4.1 SS workouts and 3.5 level Threshold, should I instead repeat my SS workouts from this week Looking Glass -1, Glassy -4 and Coomnadiha (2.7 rather than Moose’s Tooth -1 3.1) or would you do something different, like a week of just Z2 to recover?

Have my first race of the year (a B race) on April 2nd if that makes a difference, I would rather not be hanging on by a thread like I seem to be right now but also would like to continue progressing as physically able into the start of race season (3 races in April, 1 race in May, 2 races in June, 1 in July, 1 in September).

The other thing is overall, I’m not that worried about setting a new peak FTP but would rather increase my TTE and overall durability, repeatability etc. I feel like right now I have bumped up my FTP but it seems pretty fragile, at least at the volume I’m doing right now.

My main goal for this season is to maintain that 6 hours or more of TR training each week, preferably at a minimum of Z2 intensity ( >312H for the year, > ~26h per month). Last year I just did LV (started TR in late April) + whatever riding I did outside so did 3 to 6 hours per week on average for a total of 272H in 2022 (22.6h per month on avg). I don’t even have a full year of structured training so I doubt I’m reaching my genetic potential or anything, just progressing a bit too fast for my lifestyle right now with the extra Z2 volume.

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There’s the ramp rate of your training -that is just one factor. The other key factors are everyday activities and stress (job/family life) nutrition and rest. When all of those elements are in pace I can hammer away 8-1200 TSS for several weeks before backing off for a week and then back at it.

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What workouts are you being served up at this stagr? If you have, say, 2 × sweetspot, I’d bin one of them and replace it with one of your Z2 rides instead.

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Personally I’d suggest that if you’re not feeling it on a given day use the workout alternatives feature. They allow you to go up or down as needed and not completely pull you off plan.

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I could have predicted I wouldn’t be at 100% as I had worked a 12 hour shift that day but couldn’t tell I was going to struggle that much until 1/2 way into the workout. I think it specifically hit a weak spot for me right now, I did Beacon -3 (2.5) last week which is 8 min intervals (6 min 90-94 followed by 2 min at 95-99) fine but find I get overloaded with longer intervals that include time above 100% (5 min intervals that go from 95 up to 105 twice per interval), while I did get through it, it was like just barely and would have made more sense to decrease by 5% for those last 2 intervals, so kind of consider it a fail even though I didn’t get the struggle survey.

I will probably use alternatives to choose easier alternatives for all 3 prescribed workouts next week. Instead of Carson -2 (3.8) will do Plummer -2 (3.6) and instead of Grampians (4.1) will do Tunnabora (3.6) and instead of Cloudripper -2 (3.5) will do Owsley (2.8) (even easier than Moose’s Tooth -1 of this week).

If that doesn’t work, I may just do a week where I swap every workout for Z2, I do have the recovery week of my plan for the week of March 20th but I don’t want to be absolutely wrecked by then.

in SSB so 2 SS and 1 Threshold per week, I’m adding an extra 2 Z2 workouts per week to target the 6 hour a week minimum.

I’m generally doing around 350 TSS a week since the new year but only exceeded 300 TSS (of TR work) in 3 weeks across all of my 2022 TR training.

Here’s my ramp rate visualized by Intervals.icu, looks like I should be optimal now but I felt better back in December and January when I was apparently running in the red most of the time. I did feel it when I hit a fatigue score of 60 ~jan 29th though but lately, its not predicting me to be in the red but I seem to be, perhaps more due to lifestyle stress/fatigue.

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6

If I were you I’d switch your extra Z2 to extra sleep. Seriously. I expect your gains will be much more resilient as well.

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Reducing volume makes the most sense but I don’t want to abandon my 1 goal for this year (6h or more of structured training per week for all of 2023). For me it made more sense to set a reasonable volume goal and stick to it for the whole year than something like “I will get my FTP to 240” I think that a “process goal” is more realistic and if say I can do 7 or 8 hours per week all of 2024 I should be even faster.

I’m already 2 weeks in, just have to hold on for 3 more weeks (till March 27th) and I will have finished my clinical placement and will just have class and work, instead of 45 hours per week of clinical placement and 12-24 hours per week of work and 3 hours per week of class and whatever assignments and studying for exams.
The next 20 days though I am going to be at the hospital for 18 days out of 20 over those next 3 weeks weeks, just taking the 13th and the 20th off to ensure I can stay on top of schoolwork/not perish.

March 27th to April 1st, should allow me to recover some in terms of life stress in time for the April 2nd race. By mid May should be done school entirely and working in a normal 40 hour per week job, excited to see how good I will feel with such a reduced life stress volume lol.

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It’s obviously up to you how much you train and prioritize your goals, but it sounds like you’re realizing that what maybe felt like a very achievable goal in January is now looking like a much bigger commitment? Haha and if my experience has been any indicator that’s gonna keep happening the rest of this year/the rest of your life!

I’d think about it this way: if you get really sick/overtrain in the next three weeks, then what? When will you get the time to get out of that hole? I’ve overtrained, got sick, and lost more fitness than I would have by resting for a defined period.

If you want to use a TR plan, maybe load up Time Crunched 30 (we just had our seventh kid and I used it for the four weeks on either side of the due date — it was great) and then if you have the time/energy/excitement for a long Z2 ride go for it!

TL;DR: we give our bodies rest or they make us rest.

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9

I’d suggest:

  1. Riding just easy z2 until you feel good again and eager to hit it hard again. And then take extra two or three days of just z2.

  2. Ride easy for an hour or so and then do a couple of short, proper hard efforts (like 3x30s). See how you feel. How’s you heart rate responding? Are you able to hit over 90% of max hr?

  3. Do some moderately hard efforts around your threshold twice a week, like 5x5 minutes at or slightly above your ftp. Otherwise easy z2 rides with 30s or 60s efforts in the end if / when feeling good.

  4. Have a couple of succesful workouts under your belt where you feel good and finish strong. Arrive to your season’s first race feeling ready and nail it.

  5. Keep training as usual now that life is a bit easier.

Tl;dr: don’t try to run trough a wall. If you keep pushing hard workouts when your body isn’t ready you’re just digging yourself into a deeper hole. Your body needs some time to catch up before you can take another step up.

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Another option, especially if you want to stick to your weekly time target, is to do easier Z2 workouts. That’s what’s worked better for me. I stay away from “productive” endurance workouts most of the time unless I’m feeling great, so the workouts feel pretty easy. I find it easier mentally and also leaves me fresher for the interval workouts in my plan.

So try sticking to achievable and even among those, pick ones with lower PLs rather than trying to do the ones that are bordering on productive. Keep your easy workouts easy and nail your hard workouts.

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11

Have generally been just doing Baxter -1 and Fletcher, try to do stuff around the 0.65 IF range so the majority of the workout is Z2 and not a mix of Z2 and Z1 like Gibbs -1 which I used to still get my 6h in after I really buried myself at the end of January… Perhaps didn’t recover enough there, if 5 weeks later I’m sinking again. which makes me think something like @Vpe’s suggestion might be the way to go for a bit.

It seems a bit silly to be hitting my limits, overtraining or whatever with 6-6.5 hours but it seems more due to life stress and not being able to handle the ramp rate more than anything else. If I was still doing the the SS and Thr workouts I had at the start of Feb rather than progressing up PLs for both, I don’t think I would have had issues.

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How’s your recovery time. Are you getting lots of down time and rest and good sleep, say 8+ hours a night, etc.?

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Disagree. You’re in a legendarily intense training block of a profession known for the intensity of its training. It’s designed to subsume everything else in your life. :man_shrugging:t2: I’d say put sleep and relationships you care about first and use TrainNow when you’ve got the margin for a workout.

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14

Doing my best but suck at initiating sleep, switching back and forth between nights and days means, I’m usually running on 6 or 7.

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15

I feel your pain I just work 2 weeks straight 10-12 hour days while trying to train. The best advice I would say is do 1 or 2 hard workouts a week; threshold and or v02max. Then hit the rest east low zone 2, don’t do 75% ftp endurance, that’s pretty much tempo, imo. Unless they work for you.
Do what you can and doing something is better than nothing; ie; endurance rides are something. Soon you’ll be back to normal and have an open schedule.

I never get 8 hours of sleep and actually feel worse sleeping more, I know it sounds crazy. I feel fine off of 6-7 hours of sleep. Like Coach Chad said in the latest podcast “ don’t try to be perfect in everything it isn’t possible” something like that, I probably messed that up immensely.
All these trackers these days makes us think we have to eat X amount of calories, X amount of sleep. What did we do before all these trackers?

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Stick to maximum 2 intensity workout a week (SS is intensity) and the rest z2 (and perhaph even z1)

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17

Pretty sure 6-7hrs is fine. Everyone’s different but embrace the sleep in if you ever get chance. Or the early night.

Control as much you can I guess. Some things can’t be controlled so don’t try

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